Juicing Vegetables

Vegetables For Christmas

My husband’s family has a thing for gag-type gifts for Christmas. After giving my nephew (an eight-month-old boy) several custom-made onesies, we gave his father a custom-made onesie as well. He wore that onesie (with pants, thankfully) all Christmas day. We photoshopped my brother-in-law’s face into the face of a walmart picture frame, with the price tag and all -asking him when he had become a model. He and his wife were both confused for quite some time. The best one, though, was the shirts – we “borrowed” several shirts from my brother-in-law’s bag, washed them, ironed them, tagged them (we have a tagging machine), and made them look store-bought. We folded them in store boxes and wrapped them. The confusion caused by this stunt (Hey – that’s SO crazy – it even has a stain in the EXACT same spot as my shirt!)left us all laughing for days.

And the ‘gag’ gift given to us? Well, really it wasn’t that much of a gag. In fact, I had asked for it: a 50 pound bag of carrots. What do you do with that many carrots? Eat them of course! We actually ended up making a scrumptious curried carrot soup, many delicious carrot juices, a huge oatmeal carrot bread, then canned and froze half of the rest of them for future use (don’t worry, I still have at least 5 pounds for the next two weeks of juicing).

The reason I wanted so many carrots? Because I LOVE the way they make juices taste. Sweet or savory, they add flavor and smoothness – plus they make such a lovely juice color.

Why Juice Vegetables?

As a mother of two I know too well of the struggle to get kids to eat their vegetables. We have to play airplane games, choo choo train games, and sometimes we just resort to begging or forcing. As kids we ate our veggies because we had to. As adults most of us rarely touch vegetables. Why? I have heard many reasons and here are a few.

1st: “It takes too long to eat vegetables.” We live in a fast-paced society and we want fast food. Now by fast food I don’t necessarily mean McDonalds or Wendys. I mean something that is quick to chew and eat. Let’s face it, raw vegetables are not the quickest to eat.

2nd: “Vegetables don’t get me full.”

3rd: “I don’t really like vegetables.” The truth is that most Americans would rather have something sweet or hardy like meat.

4th: “I have no idea how to prepare vegetables.” Can you cook? The answer from most is “kind of.”

How Juicing Solves The Vegetable Problem

Problem #1: Juicing is fast and easy. Technically someone could juice a couple of carrots and drink all of the juice within 15 seconds.

Problem #2: You don’t need to be full in order to get all your required vitamins and minerals. With juicing you get so many micronutrients. In fact many people who juice are very satisfied with a glass of juice instead of a hearty meal. Juicing can help retrain your body from the need to be constantly full.

Problem #3: If you have a problem stomaching vegetables, then juicing is especially for you. With juices you can easily sweeten them up by adding some fruit to the mixture. Sometimes you don’t even notice the vegetable tastes. If this still doesn’t help you, then you could always try the plug your nose trick and drink really fast!

Problem #4: Juicers don’t need to be able to cook a gourmet meal. All of our juicing recipes are extremely easy. How easy? All you have to do is make sure your fruits and vegetables are clean and then you just stick them into the juicer. It really is that easy!

I hope this article has convinced you that juicing vegetables is the way to go. It is quick, easy, and super healthy for you. To get you started I have included 2 juicing recipes below. Enjoy!

Recipes for Juicing

Care Pear Juice Recipe

Ingredients

2 medium carrots
1 sweet pear (I used anjou)
1/2 cucumber

About This Juice

Cucumbers and carrots are two vegetables that juice very well. They both have very mild flavors, make a lot of juice, and (of course) add a lot of nutrients. To make this an even heartier, nutrient-dense drink, add in a handful or two of a sweet leafy greens, like romaine or spinach.

* click on images to see more recipes with that produce.

Pepper Power Juicer Recipe

Ingredients

About This Juice

Peppers have a delicious taste, and add a lot of flavor, but may be initially hard to handle, at least for the novice juicer. Celery, also, tends to be a bit more bitter. This is a very typical savory juice, however, and is especially good as a replacement lunch or an addition to dinner. Some variations could include adding in a ripe tomato or beet, or throwing in some bitter greens or herbs, like kale, parsley, or collards.